Cake

     I like cake. Cakes are celebratory. And pretty. Cakes are romantic. Can you imagine being sent an exquisite, elegant cake from your lover? Or fed cake by candlelight on a summer evening? Evening miniature cakes, petits-fours, are delightful. What about a picnic with petit-fours? What about sitting alone with a slice of cake and an espresso, overlooking the ocean? Cake holds infinite possibilities for elegance, romance and celebration.

    The owner of a local bakery-café heard that I was an artist and asked to see my work. While I had several paintings ready to show, her inquiry inspired me to paint a giant cake. In fact, it’s over one square meter of cake heaven.

    Spreading the pink paint-frosting on the three-tiered cake, I began to feel celebratory. I decided to add some grapes that became lilac blossoms, and then some leaves. (The leaves weren’t quite right, though. Someone asked if they were jalapeño peppers. I didn’t care. I decided not to mess with them.)

     The background evolved, along with the table cloth. I decided to paint the tablecloth gold to signify a rich life and to fill the background with the colors of joy, swirls of yellow and white and blue -- of music and laughter and anticipation. I decided to uh-myooz myself by adding one more thing. I wrote the word gâteau (cake in French) on top of the cake. This pleased me. A sort of private joke. Obviously, this was a cake. To state the obvious completely cracked me up. Gâteau.

     The owner of the bakery came over to choose some paintings. Interestingly, she didn’t choose the cake (probably due to the jalapeños).

     So ... the enormous pink gâteau now hangs in my dining room, an every-day reminder to celebrate life.

Excerpt from "A Woman's Mind Half Naked" -- Copyright 2009 -- by Jennifer Ann Gordon. All Rights Reserved.